Living A Sunshine Life

“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have freedom, sunshine & a little flower…” 

Gorgeous flutterbye hanging out on my Butterfly Bush

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Snow Lake, Gila Wilderness, NM

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Jazzing Up The Day With The Harlem Hamfats

It’s a lovely, overcast morning here…the kind of day that makes a person want to find a good book, grab a big cup of coffee and settle in for awhile. Of course, some nice background music would be icing on the cake and my morning browse through YouTube led me to some of the sweetest musical icing there is. Nothing fits mellow mood quite like the super-smooth jazz of the 1930′s…

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Despite their name, the “Harlem” Hamfats were a Chicago band in the 1930′s whose members came from various places; for example, the McCoy brothers hailed from Mississippi, Herb Morand, John Lindsay and Odell Rand were from New Orleans and Horace Malcolm and Freddy Flynn came from Chicago. Initially, they mainly provided backup music for jazz and blues singers, such as Johnny Temple, Rosetta Howard, and Frankie Jaxon for Decca Records, but when their first record “Oh Red” became a hit, it secured them a Decca contract for fifty titles.

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Rosetta Howard with The Harlem Hamfats, “If You’re a Viper”

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“Don’t you start no stuff and there won’t be no stuff…”

Recorded April 20, 1938

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If you enjoyed these tunes, you can find more stellar classics in ♫ The Jukebox ♫

Lucille Bogan

Lucille Bogan (April 1, 1897 – August 10, 1948)

Lucille was an American blues singer, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. The music critic and sexologist Ernest Borneman stated that Bogan, along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, was in “the big three of the blues”.

***Warning: Parental Advisory***

She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with pianist Henry Callens. Later that year she recorded “Pawn Shop Blues” in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the first time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago. In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin, where she recorded her first big success, “Sweet Petunia”, which was covered by Blind Blake. She also recorded for Brunswick Records, backed by Tampa Red and Cow Cow Davenport.

By 1930 her recordings had begun to concentrate on drinking and sex, with songs such as “Sloppy Drunk Blues” (covered by Leroy Carr and others) and “Tricks Ain’t Walkin’ No More” (later recorded by Memphis Minnie). She also recorded the original version of “Black Angel Blues“, which (as “Sweet Little Angel”) was covered by B.B. King and many others. Trained in the rowdier juke joints of the 1920s, many of Bogan’s songs, most of which she wrote herself, have thinly-veiled humorous sexual references. The theme of prostitution, in particular, featured prominently in several of her recordings.

In 1933 she returned to New York, and, apparently to conceal her identity, began recording as Bessie Jackson for the Banner (ARC) label. She was usually accompanied on piano by Walter Roland, with whom she recorded over 100 songs between 1933 and 1935, including some of her biggest commercial successes including “Seaboard Blues”, “Troubled Mind”, and “Superstitious Blues” Continue Reading —->

Eggstraordinary Baskets & Birthday Boards

Some people say that diamonds are a girl’s best friend but I strongly disagree with that claim. Aside from the nastiness that surrounds the diamond industry, I seriously don’t get the big attraction for ice-cold, sharp, near colorless chunks of…glassy-stuff. I like jewelry okay but my idea of fancy is a new amethyst choker or maybe a cool piece of rose quartz for my medicine bag. So…when gift-giving occasions roll around, Steve gets off easier than any man I know…a cool rock, nice tree stump or funky piece of driftwood will make me giddier than any ordinary polished-up chunk o’ coal ever could! And I gotta say that Steve outdid himself on my gift this year with this super-awesome, one-of-a-kind…Birthday Board! 

Yes indeed, folks…you are looking at one of the coolest damned gifts ever! I have a board…a solid, aged, stunningly gorgeous piece of pine…and I can do whatever I can dream of with it. Oh me, oh my…decisions, decisions..! So many ideas…only one slab of wood!

One of the coolest things about the ‘birthday board’ is that it was found and pulled from a scrap wood bin at the local Habitat For Humanity ReStore. The price nearly broke the bank at a whoppin’ $1.50; I am a high-maintenance woman, lemme tell ya…not every man could afford to keep me in…old boards! I’ve got old rope, twine…probably some chain and hooks…partial cans of stain and sealer and who knows what all else stashed away so it’ll be a real kick to see what odds and ends can be salvaged from here, there & over there in order to make this tired old board into something interesting…

In the upper left corner is a hanging shelf made from a slab of wood I salvaged from the old Venice Beach Pier…

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The next-best  treasure find of the day, was this awesome little handmade mirror & shelf…

Oops, I’d already taken the mirror off the back before I snapped a pic but oh well, the general idea is here.

 The mirror was held on with strapping tape and the wood is a little worn and beaten but with an afternoon’s worth of sanding and staining &  TLC, this will look fresh and new. Instead of putting the original mirror back on, I’m going to insert a piece of rainbow-ish, iridescent plastic that Steve salvaged from another project. The color of the plastic changes with the lighting in the room and the background so I’m thinking that with a little candle in a glass holder, this is going to be a super-cool addition to…uhm…well, whatever wall I end up hanging it on! This shelf was another bank-breaking find with a price tag of $2.00. Seriously, even if I sink another $5 into repairing it, I’ve still wound up with a heck of a deal…not to mention, another project to tinker with and customize!

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Not only did I get my very own Birthday board and funky mirror to remake, my stepdaughter rocked the ‘most thoughtful’ gift category this year by taking time to hunt down just the right style of basket and just the right shade of purple fabric to line it with for my new egg basket!

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Other fun  project updates: The chicken coop is now painted – (for free!) – thanks to a buddy that was kind enough to drop a whole bag of sign paints on my world last week. I used some yellow leftover from old jobs we’ve done and then had a HUGE bag of accent color paints to jazz it all up with. Wheeeeee! Colors, colors…everywhere!!! We were about to build some steps up to the nesting box when I got lucky (at ReStore again; my home away from home…) and found a little set of wooden steps for an outrageous price of $4. They were the perfect height and with a few quick splashes of paint, they were set in place and ready to go.  Gotta love the times when the perfect item pops up at the perfect time just for – the perfect use! Yes, we could have made steps ourselves - but not for less than $4 worth of wood and now we can use our scrap for other projects and free up the time for…well, whatever comes next!

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This afternoon we added more veggies to the garden. Along with the already happy sunflowers and purple tomatillos, we got several more cherry tomatoes & more spinach out;  we set the Kentucky Wonder pole beans in place, got the mound done and the melons and squash in the ground…cayenne and bell peppers, lavender and more dill are all now in their ‘proper’ patches of earth..the sunflowers are growing inches a day already and the tomatillos we set out earlier are getting huge…What fun, what fun to help things grow! Flutterbyes and buzzybees are hanging around more and more which just tickles me pink…er, purple! A happy little lizard has claimed his spot on the west end of the garden, lady bugs should be here soon and hopefully one day soon we’ll have a garden worthy of entertaining the Mad Hatter in!

 I’ll get photos soon and put together a better post about the garden progress later on this week.  Ya know…after I get another project or two started…or finished…or both. Oh! And of course, I also still have a sweet piece of birthday ink in progress so please understand if scratching the tattoo itch takes priority and the sound of the needle calls me away…

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♫ A very merry un-birthday to you all…! ♫ 

Have a wonderful, colorful and fun-filled week!

To Begin…Again

♫ Well so here I am at the end of the road
Where do I go from here?
I always figured it would be like this
Still nothing seems to be quite clear… ♫

Over the past few months I’ve become increasingly unhappy with, and unenthusiastic about, this little blog o’ mine. As with pretty much everything else I do in life, I started with no real plan or vision of what I wanted this blog to be; I just jumped in and built as I went…what a shock that I’m not happy with the result, eh?

Usually when I get to “the end” of an idea or project, I set it on fire and burn it to the ground – and I’ll admit that lately I’ve been sorely tempted to just light a match and watch ‘A MisBehaved Woman’ go up in smoke. I’m not a pyro but I do love the release that comes from the flame, the smoke & the purified ash that is left to blow away on the wind…leaving a space cleared for something new to grow. For whatever “unhappy” I have with the blog, I’ve not yet been able to light the match because somewhere here I still think there’s a foundation that might be worth salvaging instead of torching… so perhaps I just need to step back and decide how to best re-direct my energy into something more positive.

One of the main things that is causing an itching sort of discomfort in my head is the realization that I am spreading fear…feeding the wrong Wolf, so to speak. I do not want fear & darkness to win out and yet those are the very energies I feed with many of my posts. Fear of police, the state, big brother, financial collapse, new technology…enough is enough. I’ve done nothing but swim in the darkness of the fear & underworld in one form or another for a decade now and I want to see the light again…I want to BE the light again. 

♫…Well it’s been quite a while since I lifted my head
And I’m sure the light will hurt my eyes
I see the way that I been spendin’ my days
And reality has caught me by surprise

I was dreamin’ of tomorrow so I sacrificed today
And it sure was a grand waste of time
And despite all the truth that’s been thrown in my face
I just can’t get you out of my mind… ♫

 The bottom line is that if people haven’t already figured out that we – the global society – are neck deep in a whirlpool of shit, then there is nothing more I can do, say or scream about that is likely to make a difference. I looked back over my files and noticed that my first online post warning of coming water shortages, droughts and fighting (wars) over water rights was almost 10 years ago…ditto the death penalty concerns of executing the innocent…and  the dangers of private prisons…and the odd spraying activity in the sky over my head. I’m tired; I’m sinking while I tread water waiting for others to wake-up & catch-up…and my voice no longer roars the way it once did – I’m hoarse & raspy with only a half-hearted passion for what I do…and it’s just not good for me to keep doing what I do if my heart isn’t truly in it anymore. 

♫…All the words have been spoken and the prophecy fulfilled
But I just can’t decide where to go
Yes, it’s been quite a day and I should go to sleep
But tomorrow I will wake up and I’ll know

That I’ve got to begin again
Though I don’t know how start… ♫

It’s summertime…it’s May, the best month of the whole year & I don’t want to miss it while I’m stuck to a screen or drowning in muckity-muck of the world. There is still a hell of a lot of beauty left on this rock and dammit, I’m sick of missing out on all of it! I turn 42 (wow, when did THAT happen???) tomorrow…’tis the season of retro-introspection and change. Re-birthing myself always happens in May…from leaving abusive partnerships to transforming into a Ducki to getting new ink added to the skinmap of my life…May is the month of all things new and so it will be here, now, with A MisBehaved Woman. 

I really am not sure where this blog is going to go from here…it may well sit idle for awhile as I throw back some Mojitos, work on my garden and my tan – and try to figure it all out in this bouncy-trouncy brain of mine. Maybe the posts will just be more funky & random as I switch things up and see what direction I want to travel in next, I don’t know because I don’t have a clear vision just yet. No matter what, I’m heading towards the light for a change – both online & in the real world. I hope readers stick around for that change but I’ll more than understand ifn’s a few folks wander off…it’s all part of the beauty of the intrawebs…crossing paths, exchanging a few thoughts & ideas and then parting ways with no harm and no foul.

~ Wishing You All Peace, Blessings & The Beauty of New Beginnings ~  

Rebecca

Hooray! Hooray! The 1st of May!

Welcome, with your lovely greenwood choir,

summery month of May for which I long!

~ Welsh, 14th Century ~

“Beltane or Beltain (pron.: /ˈbɛlteɪn/) (also Beltine or Beltaine) is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 30 April–1 May, or halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It was observed in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In Irish it is Bealtaine ([ˈbʲal̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə]), in Scottish Gaelic Bealltainn ([ˈpjaul̪ˠt̪ˠɪɲ]) and in Manx Gaelic Boaltinn or Boaldyn. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals; along with Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh.  

The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe. A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole dance and crowning of the Queen of the May. Various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on May 1st. Wiki

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When all the world has gone to sleep
The fairies from the forest creep
From out ‘the wild wood comes the call:
“The dance is life … the dance is all …”

An ancient forest beckons me
To run skyclad amongst the trees
This band of pagans cannot wait
with you, tonight, to celebrate.

Cernunnos, Lord of Beasts, has spoken:
“Come join us for some pagan folk!”

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In Irish Gaelic, the festival is usually called Lá Bealtaine (“day of Beltane”) while the month of May is Mí Bhealtaine (“month of Beltane”). In Scottish Gaelic, the month is called (An) Cèitean or a’ Mhàigh, and the festival is Latha Bealltainn. Sometimes the older Scottish Gaelic spelling Bealltuinn is used. The word Céitean comes from Céad Shamhain, an old alternative name for the festival.

In modern Scottish Gaelic, Latha Buidhe Bealltainn or Là Buidhe Bealltainn (“the yellow day of Beltane”) is used to describe the first day of May. This term Lá Buidhe Bealtaine is also used in Irish and is translated as “Bright May Day”. In Ireland it is referred to in a common folk tale as Luan Lae Bealtaine; the first day of the week (Monday/Luan) is added to emphasize the first day of summer.”

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Hooray! Hooray!

The 1st of May!

Outdoor f*cking begins today!

~My former roommate, 2000~

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Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and it is associated with important events in Irish mythology. It marked the beginning of summer and was when cattle were driven out to the summer pastures. Rituals were performed to protect the cattle, crops and people, and to encourage growth. Special bonfires were kindled, and their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective powers. The people and their cattle would walk around the bonfire, or between two bonfires, and sometimes leap over flames or embers. All household fires would be doused and then re-lit from the Beltane bonfire. Doors, windows, byres and the cattle themselves would be decorated with yellow May flowers, perhaps because they evoked fire. In parts of Ireland, people would make a May Bush; a thorn bush decorated with flowers, ribbons and bright shells. Holy wells were also visited, while Beltane dew was thought to bring beauty and maintain youthfulness. Many of these customs were part of May Day or Midsummer festivals in other parts of Great Britain and Europe…

…Yellow flowers such as primrose, rowan, hawthorn, gorse, hazel and marsh marigold were set at doorways and windows in 19th century Ireland, Scotland and Mann. Sometimes loose flowers were strewn at the doors and windows and sometimes they would be made into bouquets, garlands or crosses and fastened to them. They would also be fastened to cows and equipment for milking and butter making. It is likely that such flowers were used because they evoked fire. Similar May Day customs are found across Europe.

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The May Bush was popular in parts of Ireland until the late 19th century. This was small tree, typically a thorn tree, that would be decorated with bright flowers, ribbons, painted shells, and so forth. There were household May Bushes (which would be set outside each house) and communal May Bushes (which would be set in a public spot or paraded around the neighbourhood). In Dublin and Belfast, May Bushes were brought into town from the countryside and decorated by the whole neighbourhood. Each neighbourhood vied for the most handsome tree and, sometimes, residents of one would try to steal the May Bush of another. This led to the May Bush being outlawed in Victorian times. In some places, it was customary to dance around the May Bush, and at the end of the festivities it was burnt in the bonfire. Thorn trees were seen as special trees and were associated with the sí or fairies. The custom of decorating a May Bush or May Tree was found in many parts of Europe. Frazer believes that such customs are a relic of tree worship and writes: “The intention of these customs is to bring home to the village, and to each house, the blessings which the tree-spirit has in its power to bestow”. Sharon MacLeod writes that May Bushes were set outside farmhouses “to encourage and protect the abundance of milk during the summer”. Emyr Estyn Evans suggests that the May Bush custom may have come to Ireland from England, because it seemed to be found in areas with strong English influence and because the Irish saw it as unlucky to damage certain thorn trees.  However, “lucky” and “unlucky” trees varied by region, and it has been suggested that Beltane was the only time when cutting thorn trees was allowed. The practice of bedecking a May Bush with flowers, ribbons, garlands and coloured shells is found among the Gaelic diaspora, most notably in Newfoundland, and in some Easter traditions on the East Coast of the United States.” Wiki

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After almost 10 days of having a continual stream of guests in the house, my head feels like half-melted taffy in the hands of a 4yr old…all pulled and gooey and stretched to the limit. I do believe that some sunshine, hard physical work and a huge dose of creative painting are the perfect cure for the case of boggle-brain (a common side-effect of familyitis & mandatory fun events) that I am suffering from!  I’ve been looking forward to a fun May Day post & couldn’t resist putting one together – but instead of returning to daily blog reading and posting that I’d planned on, I am going back offline so I can set my house and head to rights again. Short of some natural disaster, I will see you all in here cyberland next Monday!

Happy May Day! 

Found this hanging on my door last May 1st

The Innocent Age

In 1994, my mom died at the rather young age of 49. Had she lived, today would have been Mom’s 68th birthday…

Happy Birthday, Mom.

I’ll be looking for hummingbirds and thinking of you today.

Me, Mom & nephew in her arms.

~

Capture the moment

Carry the day

Stay with the chase

As long as you may

Follow the dreamer,

The fool, and the sage

Back to the days of

The innocent age.

Storybook endings

Never appear

They’re just someone’s way of

Leading us here

Waiting for wisdom

To open the cage

We forged in the fires of

The innocent age. 

~

Fretful horizons

Worrisome skies

Tearful misgivings

Burning your eyes

Yearnings unanswered

Reckon the wage you

Pay to recapture the innocent age.

 ~

Back at the start

It was easy to see

No one to own to

Nowhere to be

Deep in the heartlands

A sad memory

Calls to me…

Freefalling Chaos

This is me right now…

I am still madly working trying to work on the website I’m building. We have out-of-town guests staying with us and a very poorly planned and absolutely chaotic family wedding to attend this weekend.

I’m not sure what the question is at this point…but I think beer is the answer.

I’ll be back…eventually. Maybe…Once the chaos subsides and I have more than 2 minutes of peace and quiet in my life at a time.

~Peace (Sanity) & Love To All~

Gratitude

~Wishing you all a peaceful and blessed weekend!~

 

 

Purple Here, Purple There…Purple, Purple Everywhere!

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” 

Alice Walker, The Color Purple

No nasty headlines here today…no GMO information, no Monsanto slamming (yeah, that’s a tough one for me) and of course, no posts about our pathetically inept guvernmint. The world is a mess, I think we’ve all gotten the memo, haven’t we? So…instead of focusing on the muckity-muck today, I thought I’d aim for something more off-beat & hopefully, positive and uplifting. Since I encouraged folks to share what they know, what they’re learning and different ways to become more self-reliant  in the Like A Phoenix: Power Beyond The Fall article, I figure I should take my own advice and share some about the projects we’ve started as we walk our path of  a less consumer-driven and more sustainable & satisfying lifestyle. 

This past weekend we put the scrap lumber & old doors to use and got the chicken coop built. We still need to add a proper roost and nesting box but the hard part is finished at least. Total cost came to around $30 for the wire and a couple of 2×4′s. We bought more wire than we needed but I’m sure we’ll find use for the leftovers in the garden…maybe even use it to make a spiral herb garden, who knows? 

Yes, there’s a bench inside…if I can’t sit down, how can they hop on my lap for a nap?!

We’re also considering adding a couple of small rain-catchers on either end of the slanted roof; we don’t get much rain here but since we are in such a horrible drought in this region, every saved drop of water counts. Total spent on the hens so far is still under $60…not too shabby and it’s possible we didn’t have to spend that much but hey, I like to spoil them with mealworms, what can I say? They are healthy & happy…not to mention, wonderful pets and tons of fun to have around! Oh, and just because the coop isn’t purple now, doesn’t mean it won’t be at some point in the future…just in case you were wondering what a plain ol’ wood coop had to do with a purple blog-post…

Along with getting the coop done, we also made time to head over and check out the new local nursery (they grow what they sell and don’t import; I LOVE that!)…it was a rainbow of happy colors, oh my! Decisions, decisions!  Some of these and a few of those and oooh….lookit those flowers! In the end, I went on a purple spree…and who knew that Petunias are my favorite flower? I sure the hell didn’t know that until now! 

Wait…did I just say Petunias are my new favorite? Oops…I forgot all about the Purple Sage that now sits happily in our little tea-garden area!

If heaven exists, it is here and now & THIS is what it smells like! You can’t touch this gorgeous plant without releasing the fragrance…sorry there is no “Scratch & Sniff” option on computers…you’ll just have to trust me on this. I’m looking forward to having fresh sage to cook with and to make my own sage bundles for incense…and oh yes, the buzzy-bees and flutterbyes adore this plant so it’s a win all the way around.

Because we plan on using several hanging containers both inside & out and since I am, in the words of my 6ft3in son, a “short-shit”, I decided that some sort of step-ladder or stool might be helpful…I got super-lucky and scored this little old gem at the ReStore for a whoppin’ $2.

It was an ugly, chipped brown and a bit wobbly but with a couple of screws and quick coat of paint, it’s cute AND functional! Total cost was under $5 and I am sure I’ll more than get my money’s worth of use out of it. My only problem now is wondering if I shouldn’t have painted it purple but hey, I guess it makes sense to add an accent color here and there, doesn’t it? 

In keeping with my love of all things purple, I decided to go all out and treat myself to some Manic Panic Purple Haze color for my hair. It’s not exactly non-consumerist of me but considering I cut my own hair, use maybe 1 eyeliner pencil every two years and spend about $20 a year on “gurl stuffs”, I’m not going to sweat a $10 splurge now and then. Besides, I’d hate to offend my pretty Mad Hatter’s tea-party- garden-in-the-making by being a bland presence in it…it’s a tough sacrifice for me to make (Mwahahahahhaha believe THAT and I’ll sell you the beach-front property next door for a helluva price!) but ya know, it’s a tough world out there and sometimes…well, a freak’s gotta do what a freak’s gotta do! 

“How Not To Dress In The Bible Belt” taken on our southern vacation a couple of years ago…

For wonderful gardening tips, take a minute (or several!) and check-out Auntie Dogma’s Garden Spot. You’ll find tons of excellent how-to information and links and in case you didn’t get enough purple from this post, you can follow up with today’s post there about…Lavender! 

I’m off now for a day or so…I got a paying gig building a new blog site for a prison advocacy organization and I want to put all of my energy and focus into doing a bang-up job for them. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and I’ll be back in a few days, if not sooner!

Dusty Sunshine & Gardens of Green

Dear Mr. Winter & Miss Wind, 

Please go get a room & blow yourselves away already. 

Sincerely & Sneezingly, 

~Rebecca~

It was 90 degrees here a few days ago…it was muscle shirt & beer weather…eh, look at that…the beginnings of a proper Farmer’s Tan on my arms! Windows have been flung open as we’ve gorged on a feast of fresh air, birdsong & sunny, sunny suuuuunshine!  Seeds are sprouted, things are green all over! We’d even unhooked the (hideously ugly) heater and stashed it in the closet just the day before yesterday…because Summer is nearly here…..WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

My chicks HAVE hatched so no one can accuse me of counting them prematurely, right?

Yeah, right. 

Yesterday, some jerk came and stole the Sun away and left me stranded in a dreary, windy brown and grey world…that’ll teach me to nap on a Monday, now won’t it? My (newly transplanted) baby cherry tomato plants are pitifully doubled over after 18 straight hours of 45 -60+mph winds. The heater is now standing back in place, uglier and more unwelcome than ever. Windows closed; curtains are drawn because the sky is BROWN…it’s not air out there… it’s like trying to inhale a sandbox!

Since I can’t open my door without risk of getting knocked on my butt by a dust-devil & since dusting or housework is a laughably lost cause today, I thought I’d take the time to upload and share some pics of our efforts to create a mini-farm-oasis here on our funky little patch of city-desert.

“Hey, Steve…I was wondering…can those two sinks out in the backyard be used for planters or something; they’re ugly and we need to use ‘em or donate ‘em…” Steve is the magick man with magickal building hands and so we now have matching sink-planters seeded with edible flowers on either side of the front door!

Free-cycled planters made from scrap lumber and sinks that were to be thrown away.

Nothing in this space had been tended to or cared for in the last decade; everything is covered with inches and inches of sand that has blown in and buried every last weed or sprig of green. We’re lucky the Tree of Heaven is alive, sad little thing that it is.  Now though? Both sides of the walkway have been tilled and seeded with both flowers (gotta feed the bees!) and veggies. Cherry tomatoes, purple tomatillos, dill, three varieties of garlic, lavender, larkspur, pansies…if the cherry tomatoes survive this nasty bout of weather, this area will be a mini ‘Garden of Eating’ by mid-summer!

The backyard was in even worse shape than the front area…I’ve not been able to even look out there since we moved here in November it is such a sad little space! But…in the short burst of pre-Spring weather that we had last week, we got new fencing put up and a small area tilled for a garden. The outer perimeter has tons of sunflowers already sprouting and we’re working on the inner area where we’ll have mounds for the ground-vine veggies like cucumbers, melons and gourds to spill down. Other small areas will have bell-peppers, cayenne peppers, green chile, pole and bush beans…and who knows what else we can squeeze in?

Believe it or not, there really IS life beginning to sprout here!

And, in the event that everything goes dastardly wrong outside, we’ve got a back-up garden started indoors. We decided to downsize the furniture and sell the fancy dining table we don’t use very often now that the kids have grown and flown away…so what once was the awkward dining room is now what we call the Garden Room. It has big windows that face south and west which means there is plenty of sunshine all day long – as a bedroom this room would be miserably hot but for plants it is proving to be perfect!

It’s not much and we still have tons of work left to do but it’s been a blast to get all of this started. It’s been too many years since I’ve been this up-close and down-deep with my food…you should see me outside, kneeling over, mounding/propping up the seedlings, assuring them that the weather will be nice again by tomorrow if they’ll please just hang in there!

Celebrating 75 Years Of Life

My father’s 75th birthday party is this weekend… 75 years…wow, what an accomplishment! 

In spite (or because?) of the insanity of our world, I hope that everyone has a great weekend. Take some time off, breathe…soak in some outdoors and rejuvenate your spirit! No matter how screwed up our world seems, there is much beauty to be found all around us and we would be wise to take time to notice and not miss out on it. As for me…I’m off to enjoy the celebration of my Dad’s life. The older I get, the wiser he becomes and the more I cherish him. Have a great weekend! See you all Monday…

From the WayBackWhenMachine. My brother, Dad, Mom..& me in front

I used to sit on Dad’s knee and sing this song on nights when he was home…Enjoy!

 

What I Got

Just a small reminder…each moment, each day is a celebration of Life.

Love the life ya got..!

♫♪♫ “Well, life’s too short, so love the one you got
‘Cause you might get run over or you might get shot…” ♫♪♫

Food Fight: Saving Kids From Processed Junk

“What’s Beef?

Beef is when you’re 12 years old and obese

clogged arteries, can’t see your own feet

until you’re up in ICU, guaranteed to be an ‘I see you”

From that processed food.

Suicide. It’s a suicide.

Don’t want no microwaves, no pesticides.

Fast food’s a slow death in disguise.

It’s the wild wild westernized world of deception and lies.

What’s Beef?

Beef is when you starve in a famine.

Nothing won’t grow and the land stays barren.

Pollution in the river, mercury in the salmon.

What sense do it make, being at war with the planet?

We’re at war for the mind so impressionable.

Instead of vegetables,

we reach for Red Bulls.

Poor diets kill more brothers than pistols.

We’re fighting for our lives like Michael Vic’s pit bulls.

Dog eat dog, America eats the young,

We die from beef, but more from meat than the gun.

Bullets for breakfast and mass murder meals.

Enemy of the state, and your plate is the battlefield

in this FOOD FIGHT!”

“A boy must escape a world where the processed food is killing his neighborhood — literally.

SHARE to teach kids who is behind it, and how to escape.”

Song Produced & Mixed by J.Bless & Golden Horns
Outro song “On the Way”: produced by J.Bless from the album “Earth Amplified”

Visit http://SOSjuice.com/foodfight For More Information & Song Download

A Sunny, Springy Sunday!

Every day now for the past several days, I’ve told myself that I would sit down, force myself to concentrate… I told me that I WOULD get a lot of reading and posting done…yes indeed…I was quite stern when I spoke to myself! Ah…but the Spring Self that is Me right now, merely giggled and ran away outside to play with the chickies and wiggle her toes in the mud as she planted more seeds…

I DID make good on my order to myself to make sure to sit down and get lots of reading done…but uh…instead of reading hundreds of blogs which is what I really meant to do, I sat outside on a bench in the sunshine & read the entire Little House On The Prairie series of books from beginning to end. I’ve not read them in since I was a kid and it was great fun reconnecting with Laura Ingalls…she always was one of my heroes and hey, whattya know…she couldn’t ever sit still and was constantly wandering off to find adventure and trouble, too!  

The whole week was not one of leisure, in spite of the stolen hours of playing on the prairie…Spring Cleaning has been happening still on a large and mostly outdoor scale. Fencing has been repaired, replaced, painted & a new yard section exists where the dogs can’t trample a garden. Hundreds of veggies and wildflowers have been seeded both indoors and out…more and more sprouts peek up every day…cilantro, dill, Forget-Me-Nots, Pansies, cherry tomatoes, garlic…sproing, sproing, sproing! and new little green heads appear all the time now! My hands are happy hands right now for having helped birth so much new life along this spring!

~~

Radley & Boo, the chicks, are growing by leaps and bounds…literally. They need several hours of outdoor playtime every day now. Like all babies, they require lots of supervision, cleaning, feeding and soothing but that’s okay because they’ll be grown & moving outside before I know it! These moments are precious, dontcha know?! Steve always thought I was a bit off in the head when I’d talk about the way the hens I had as a kid would kick back and sit on my lap for chats all the time…until yesterday when he sat down to watch the chicks with me and they both made a perch on his leg and dozed off for naps. Did I have the camera on hand..? Pffft! Of course not! 

~~

Aside from all of the outdoor fun, I have finally been able to fling the doors and windows wide open…which means that I was also able to finally start to work refinishing and painting the gorgeous old door I salvaged for $20 over the winter. It had the most gorgeous carved flowers and for months now, I’ve had to look at them plain and bland and WHITE…all the while, I’ve plotted the colors to use and waited impatiently to splash some color on the poor old door. I was less than an hour from being done with the project on Thursday when hubby wanders in and makes some off-the-cuff comment about how it would look neater if I framed the flowers in and gave it all the appearance of stained glass. 

Crap. I wanted to hurry through the project but he was right…frickinfrackinfuckinRAWR! So…the ‘few little flowers’ I originally was going paint have morphed into a project requiring that I paint the ENTIRE door. Since the door was old and worn, none of the lines are sanded smooth anymore but my eye demands perfectly straight and unwarbled lines so I’m now 48 hours into working on it and hopefully can have it done by tonight or tomorrow morning depending on how long my hands hold out. I am naming this door, “Steve’s Revenge” and figure his idea for how to improve the door is revenge for all of the cockamamie ideas for projects that I’ve hit him with and the work I’ve caused him over the years! 

“Steve’s Revenge”…nowhere near complete but shaping up nicely!

So now I’m off to frolic, paint and cluck around the yard with the chickies. Tomorrow starts a whole new week and maybe, just maybe, I can be stern enough with myself to sit down and catch up on all of the posts and news that I’ve missed…but no promises shall be made because I know if a good patch of sunshine calls me, I will have no choice but to answer! 

Have a beeeeeeautiful Spring Sunday! 

Old Man Tree & Purple Me

This song has recently become one of my favorites and it seems most fitting on this beautifully bright…and not-yet-windy – Sunday morning… 

♫ I met a man who was a tree
Did I see him or he see me?
Standing there majestically
Tree and me…

The smell of sun on autumn leaves
He said take good care of all you see
Praise the earth down on your knees
That’s what the old man sang to me… ♫

♫ The words they flow like melody
Through gnarly old man/tree and me
From root to bone from him to me
Just like the river to the sea
Now I am he as tree is me
And I’m not here and so is he
‘Cause in my mind I’m always free
Just like tree that sang to me

The first shall never be the last
There is no future and no past
Put brother Flame to sister Grass
Let’s celebrate the Pagan mass… ♫

~~~

Yesterday was one of those typical desert days that makes the Big, Bad Wolf proud…Sister Wind huffed and puffed – and even rattled the windows & howled in her angry attempts to blow our house…and just about everything else, including our one and only old shade tree…down around us.

Instead of working on fence repair and yard stuff as planned, we hunkered down safe & sound, worked on the indoor garden and made lots of yummy food stuff like strawberry-vanilla-rose smoothies, red chile roasted cauliflower and a spiced apple cake with dark chocolate applesauce icing! Two of the kids are visiting this weekend so it was a good excuse to spoil them with some ‘actual’ food instead of the normal junk they seem to live on. 

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” 

― Alice Walker, The Color Purple

As for the indoor container garden…we have so many seeds planted now…Y♥Y! ~*Happy Dance*~! If everything sprouts, blooms and produces, we’ll have all kinds of goodies to feast on by summer’s end…Cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cayenne peppers, spinach, leaf lettuce, wild broccoli, purple tomatillos (I am SUPER excited about those – my favorite food in purple!!), onions, parsley, cilantro, chives,  pansies, dill, lavender and mint…at least, that’s what we have started so far. There are still radishes, carrots & beans to plant this coming week and I still want to track down some purple cauliflower and Dragon Carrot seeds (purple outside; orange inside!) – and yes, I do have a passion for purple! If I can EAT the color purple? Well hey, life will be even more grand than the Hatter’s Tea Party and I will be ecstatic!

It appears that Wind wore herself out yesterday and is either napping or throwing her tantrum somewhere else today…so now it’s time to get to the outside work…the sooner the fencing is all done out in the back, the sooner I can drop hundreds of sunflowers around the perimeter and start filling up the middle with cucumbers, melons and pumpkins! Blue and purple Morning Glories are already sprouting along the front fence…and by this afternoon, the other flowerbeds will be overflowing with wildflower seeds. The two old sinks that were in the shed will be on stands beside the front door and filled with Forget-Me-Nots and marigolds…oh yes, and it won’t be long before the chickies, Radley & Boo, are going to be ready for their outside digs so the chicken coop will have to be done soon, too! 

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful, recharging, rejuvenating, time-jumping Sunday!

Whatever you’re doing today, I hope it is lively and colorful and fun!

~(Purple) Peace & Blessings~ 

Among The Wildflowers

It seems that I have been struck with the most severe case of Spring Fever ever known to man…no force or interest has been great enough to keep me strapped to my chair for more than 15 minutes at a time. If I were still of school age, I’m sure I’d have been rapped on the knuckles 10,000 times for staring out the window and daydreaming my day away…

♫ I hitched a ride with the wind and since he was my friend, I let him decide where we’d go…When a flower grows wild, they can always survive…wildflowers don’t care where they grow…♫

I cannot help it; my head is in the clouds…or more like the dirt and earth as I dig, and rake and weed and water and make a muddy mess of myself…I know that I have been neglecting my blog and not posting regularly but damned if I can bring myself to care right now. This little house was the mother of all dumps when we moved in and the yard was a nightmare…but we moved in right as Old Man Winter settled upon us so on top of the dreary cold days, the view outside has been one that makes me cringe and close the blinds. We’ve made incredible progress on the inside of the place…at least the mice have vacated and the holes in the walls are repaired; everything is sparkly and shiny and new looking…but it’s a nasty clash with the collapsing shed, falling down trim and solid patch of weeds and dirt on the outside.

“Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

So now that Sunshine has brought the feeling of life back into me? Oh my…now it is time to Rebirth…everything around me! That sandpit of a backyard that has gone without a drop of water or ounce of effort for a decade now is going to become my little oasis in the desert or I’m going to keel over trying! There is just SO MUCH to do now that the weather is fit to be out in and after months of living in a place that makes me want to cry every time I look outside, there is an itch in my brain that is stronger than any corruption story or cyber-rabbit hole could ever be to me right now. I am sure the world is still slowly (or rapidly?) unraveling and I know I should be ‘staying on top of things’ …but if I don’t have some refuge from the Ugly and Insane we’re surrounded with, I’m going to sink into a dark oblivion never to be heard from again.

All of us need to balance the chaos of the world with some sustenance for The Spirit and while some find that sustenance in churches or other formal places of worship, my Spirit is best fed by reaching down into the depths of Mama Nature and reconnecting myself with the Life Force of the Universe…I must be barefoot and my toes must be free to wiggle in the mud while I plant fresh seeds to bring much need color and sparkle – not to mention organically grown  foods – to my world. I’ll be back around…ya know…when the fever has passed and my brain can settle down to function and focus properly once again…until then? I’m off to play among the wildflowers and hope that everyone else makes sure to grab some time for some soul-food outdoors…

 

 

Bouncing Into Spring

Okay, I know it isn’t officially Spring yet but it sure is beginning to feel like it here…we’ll have 50mph winds tomorrow and nothing says Springtime In The Desert like the March winds! The trick to keeping the endless days of blowing wind and dirt from driving you absolutely mad is to keep it in perspective…

Wind Is The Whisper of Our Mother, The Earth…Wind Is The Hand of Our Father, The Sky…Wind Is The Goddess Who First Learned To Fly…

Along with the winds we do get temps up into the high 70′s so those rare hours when it is warm but Sister Wind hasn’t yet joined us, are priceless.

Sunnysunnysunshiiiiiiiiiine! 

As if Spring isn’t joyful enough, it is Supercalifragalistically special in our house this year! We first sold our dining set to clear out a bright, sunny room and turn it into an indoor garden. Seeds are sprouting, containers are gathering and I am popping in and out of the room every hour to see if sprouts have sprouted yet.

The garden room is enough to be stoked about but then a minor miracle happened and Steve relented…

And I got chicks!!

Yogi is the Rhode Island Red & BooBoo is the yellow (for now) Delaware

I am bouncing around the house like Tigger on steroids right now, lemme tell ya. I raised chicks/hens all through my childhood and they were fantabulous friends to have around. These younguns are off to a great start; they’re friendly, curious, growing and fluffling out with more feathers everyday. Yes, I AM a proud Mama!

So, I hope everyone has a little patch of Spring Spirit in their lives right now. If not, go buy some potted flowers and grab a little pre-spring happy mood! You won’t be sorry, honest. And now I am off with my Tigger-Bouncy self…lots of happy, springy, spring-type stuff to do!

Have a great weekend! Cheerio!

2000 Years

In the beginning,
there was the cold and the night.
Prophets and angels
gave us the fire and the light.
Man was triumphant
armed with the faith and the will.
Even the darkest ages
couldn’t kill.

Too many kingdoms,
too many flags on the field.
So many battles,
so many wounds to be healed.
Time is relentless.
Only true love perseveres.
It’s been a long time, and now I’m with you
after two thousand years.

This is our moment,
here at the crossroads of time.
We hope our children
carry our dreams down the line.
They are the vintage.
What kinds of life will they live?
Is this a curse or a blessing
that we give?

Sometimes I wonder
why are we so blind to fate?
Without compassion,
there can be no end to hate.
No end to sorrow
caused by the same endless fears.
Why can’t we learn from all we’ve been through
after two thousand years?

There will be miracles
after the last war is won.
Science and poetry
rule in the new world to come.
Prophets and angels
gave us the power to see.
What an amazing future
there will be.

And in the evening,
after the fire and the light,
one thing is certain:
nothing can hold back the night.
Time is relentless.
And as the past disappears,
we’re on the verge of all things new.
We are two thousand years.

Billy Joel

Album: River of Dreams
Year: 1993

Big Mama Thornton

This woman is hands down one of my favorite artists; she can belt out a tune like few others can…you don’t just listen…you have to FEEL it to the core.

And this outstanding album is the perfect tone and mood for a slightly overcast Sunday afternoon…

♫ ~ Enjoy! ~ ♫